Studies show couples who spend on lavish wedding are likely to divorce sooner

Researchers Andrew Francis and Hugo Mialon at Emory University in Atlanta found that couple who spend big on weddings are likely to divorce sooner that those who don’t.

According to the research, weddings that cost $20,000 (£12,450) or more were 3.5 times more likely to end up divorced than those whose weddings that cost $5,000 to $10,000.

“We find evidence that marriage duration is inversely associated with spending on the engagement ring and wedding ceremony,” the authors write in a paper published by the Social Science Authors Network.

This research came after the recent extravagant celebrity weddings of George Clooney to Amal Almuddin in Venice that cost £8m and Kanye West to Kim Kardashian in Florence that cost similar.

Previously, Kardashian’s marriage to Kris Humphries in 2011 cost about £6m, and lasted 72 days.The research also found men who spend more ($2,000 to $4,000) on an engagement ring were 1.3 times more likely to get divorced than men who spent less ($500 to $2,000). However, men who spend below $500 experienced a higher divorce rate too.

“The wedding industry has consistently sought to link wedding spending with long-lasting marriages,” the professors write.“We find that marriage duration is either not associated or inversely associated with spending on the engagement ring and wedding ceremony.”